RBI may have received Rs 15 lakh crore deposits of old notes

The Reserve Bank is believed to have received deposits close to Rs 15 lakh crore, of estimated Rs 15.4 lakh crore worth junked Rs 500/1,000 currency notes that were in circulation, from the 50-day demonetisation exercise that ended on December 30.

When asked if about Rs 15 lakh crore has come to the system till December 30, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said, “I don’t know the number”.

Both the government and the RBI are yet to come out with the official statement on how much have been deposited in various banks at the end December 30, the last date for depositing and exchange of junked Rs 500/1000 notes.

According to sources, between Rs 14.5 lakh crore and Rs 15 lakh crore may have come back into the banking system and RBI is still doing reconciliation and cross-checking.

Final figure on the amount of deposits received during the demonetisation period should be announced by RBI in the next few days, sources said.

The last official number on this was only till December 10 when RBI said that the old notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000, which have been returned to the central bank and the currency chest amounted to Rs 12.44 lakh crore.

On the last day of demonetisation, RBI had asked all banks including cooperatives to report details of deposits of old Rs 500/1,000 notes to it after the close of banking hours.